Update: DC Comics has given us the exclusive reveal of the cover to Green Lantern Annual #3 by Ethan Van Sciver. Take a look!

The original story is below.

Warning: this article contains spoilers for Green Lantern Corps #36.

The Green Lantern comics are currently embroiled in the Godhead crossover where the New Gods have attacked the different Lantern Corps for their rings in hopes of obtaining the Life Equation, which they want to use to defeat Darkseid. In this week's Green Lantern Corps #36, the Lanterns have rallied together, and after a failed attack against the New Gods using "white light" weapons, John Stewart dons a violet ring, making him the first male Star Sapphire.

Granted, Guy Gardner was half a Star Sapphire during the War of the Green Lanterns, and the Predator, the violet entity, once possessed a man named Abraham, but this is the first time we've seen a male officially be inducted into the Star Sapphires.

We talked to writer Van Jensen and artist Bernard Chang about this colorful twist.

IGN Comics: So we're talking about today's Green Lantern Corps, which had the surprising twist of John Stewart becoming a Star Sapphire -- not the first male to don the pink costume, but this sounds like it's the male to legitimately become a Star Sapphire. How long has this been in the works?

Van Jensen: It's something that started to build up several months back. We spent really a year explaining the relationship of John and Fatality, who was previously a Star Sapphire and had been turned into a Star Sapphire against her will and started this relationship with John. Once she lost her ring and decided the ring had influenced her into her relationship with John that ended up being in opposition with the Star Sapphires. So one of the things we wanted to do with this crossover -- and it's true of every book -- is, even though it's these huge, crazy moments going on, we wanted to make sure that all of the individual books were still carrying the truth of the story that these characters were on.

So for our Corps, as we've been following John in this journey of discovering himself and figuring out what his viewpoints are in relation to all these different Corps and the different power sets -- which has in a lot of ways been an emotional journey -- it was kind of a natural culmination of that, of John forging a strange and awkward alliance with the Star Sapphires. I don't know. [Laughs] It seemed like the right, sort of crazy thing to do, to put him in a Star Sapphire costume.

Bernard Chang: And John looks naturally good in pink. [Laughs]

Jensen: Yeah, Bernard actually wore some amazing pink pants to a convention that we were at a year or so ago. Seeing Bernard's pink pants, it was like, "You know what? John Stewart needs to be a Star Sapphire." That color just looks so good... Yeah, pretty much everything we do, story-wise, is based on Bernard's clothing choices -- which are great choices.

Chang: I try to be as colorful at the conventions as possible. But hey, whoever goes to the shows, they might get a sneak peek as to what's going to happen to John Stewart in the future.

IGN: I'll keep an eye on your wardrobe for clues. Bernard, what was it like to design John's Star Sapphire costume? The Star Sapphires have a naturally feminine costume -- lots of midriffs and cleavage and that sort of thing. How did you translate that for a male character?

Chang: There was actually a handful of different designs that I had submitted, some that were more based on his Green Lantern outfit but had some pink accents to it -- even a hybrid of both -- because he still had the Green Lantern ring on at the same time. There was even one where he was almost shirtless, because the Star Sapphires don't have a lot of clothing on them. So I thought maybe John would be pseudo-shirtless and half-naked. But at the end we ended up going with this. It's a little more. A lot of the lines are pretty jagged. I think that has something to do with the recent turmoil that he'd experienced. But the green energy is still very fluid on his exterior. So I think there's a nice counterbalance, ultimately, with the final design that is uniform but exudes energy.

Also, one day, I saw Van without his shirt on. That was the influence for the initial John design. [Laughs] Luckily, the editors said, "Maybe we should stick with something a little bit more conservative."

IGN: [Laughs] John Stewart has been an Indigo Lantern, a compassion Lantern, before. So Van, how do you see this violet love Lantern being different from that? What's the difference between compassion and love?

Jensen: Yeah, I mean, it's kind of a fine line when you really start to define emotions. I think the Indigo Tribe -- one of the things that's fascinating about them is, Geoff Johns conceived them as this idea that they are psychopaths who, through the ring, have turned into softer, calmer, almost docile people in a lot of ways. I think that compassion is a very subtle emotion. It's not really an extreme emotion. It's kind of quiet in its way. And the Star Sapphires, from the origin of the Star Sapphires, it's always been a little more militant and extreme in its characterization. I think that's kind of an interesting way to look at love. Love is an emotion that leads people in many different directions, but it can lead you to being very intensely passionate or intensely violent. It's just a lot more sharp-edged.

So I think it really says a lot to where John has been as a character. It's almost like these raw nerves that have been exposed, that he's been struggling to deal with. So in a lot of way he has for a long time been cover up or hide his emotional side. This in many ways is him coming to grips with the fact that he can't just be this taciturn dude. He has to embrace the emotional aspects of his character that are really present, going back to the origin of when he became a Green Lantern.

IGN: This threat of the New Gods is so big that it's bringing all the different Corps together for the first time in a long time. Bernard, I imagine that's a lot to draw, because suddenly there's all these new characters. What's it like drawing these giant ensembles everywhere in every panel?

Chang: I have to give a lot of props to Pete Woods, who did a lot of the designs on the New Gods. When we first got the designs, before I started drawing, I was like, "Wow, these are really great designs. I love all the lines and the detail work." I started drawing the issues and had to incorporate all these details on every single panel and every single shot. But again, that was Pete Woods. He's a great artist. He even has a lot of the city designs mapped out. Also, I think [Craig Rousseau] is an important part, who's colored the book. He's the guy who really brings life to all the pages and really helps make them pop. But I think Pete's stuff really helps create a new direction, based off of Kirby's original designs, while giving it a modern twist to allow the technology and architecture to flow in the book and the story.

IGN: I have to ask specifically about Sinestro. What's it like to draw him? He's so arrogant.

Chang: Oh, Sinestro's a lot of fun. Any time any of these characters are in the scenes, part of my job also is not just to draw them but to be in character and act -- hand gestures, how he points or holds things. My version of Sinestro, he gestures a lot with his hands but he's very meticulous in how he behaves over any other people. He's not over the top. He doesn't have to be over the top in his expression, but a lot of it is in the subtleties. He's very much arrogant. His arms are always crossed; he's pointing out certain things.

IGN: Van, I imagine now that Sinestro's back in the mix he's like a new, fun toy to play with, because there's so much to that character. What's it been like writing Sinestro, and how does John feel about Sinestro?

Jensen: Yeah, Sinestro -- he really is like a brand new toy; that's a great way to describe it. He's just such a cool character and such a smug prick. [Laughs] He's just so confident in himself. I don't know. Something I really enjoy writing is people who are very much not like me. I wish that I had as much confidence as Sinestro has. It's kind of fun to imagine this person who is that way. In terms of John's relationship with Sinestro, there are some moments coming up in Green Lantern Corps #37 that are just really fun moments that I enjoyed writing between the two of them that really define their relationship pretty well. I don't want to spoil any of that, but it was some of the most fun I've had writing on the crossover.

IGN: During this issue there were these white light weapons that the Weaponer created. The way the issue was going, it seemed like they were now armed to fight the New Gods. But of course they break, and they have to use a different strategy, which leads to John becoming a Star Sapphire. But will we still see the Lanterns picking up these weapons again and taking swords and maces into battle? It's strange to see them using weapons like that instead of rings.

Jensen: The Weaponer's shield is going to continue to have a presence in the crossover. There's also something coming later in the crossover, in Red Lanterns, that is a super, super fun beat with some Lanterns arming themselves in a really creative way that Charles Soule did. He did a really fun job with it. And then all of the Lanterns, their rings are not gonna cut it when it comes to defeating the New Gods. So there's what you could call a weapon, a very dangerous weapon, that's going to be used. I don't want to say any more than that, but it's a really epic conclusion to the crossover that we're going to see.

IGN: Last question for the both of you. What would you say to the fans to get them excited about the crossover?

Jensen: If the Green Lanterns fighting New Gods doesn't get you in the door, I don't know what it takes to get you excited about comics. It's as big of a battle the Green Lanterns have ever faced and some of the most iconic characters in all of comics. Even beyond that, there are some hugely unexpected things coming, and there's something coming that's never been seen before in the DC Universe, that's just a huge, huge moment. There's big, big stuff ahead.

Chang: Aside from John in a pink uniform... there's a lot of fun stuff going on -- again [Motrello? (16:59)] is doing an awesome job. We're taking a lot of visual cues from the previous books that have been done before but also adding a modern twist to them. I think the fans are in for a great ride, a really fun story. Just reading it, I'm interesting flipping the pages and seeing what's going on and what's happening. So I'm hoping that the energy and enthusiasm that the creators are putting into the book are also resonating with the fans, that they will brush off on them as well.

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Game of Thrones, Spider-Man, or Super Smash Bros. are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter and IGN.